September 1 coronavirus news

A White House coronavirus task force report sent to officials in the state of Iowa this week warned of dire new case increases across rural and urban areas and called for a mask mandate, the closure of bars, and a plan from universities as the pandemic intensifies in the Midwest.

CNN has obtained the nine-page Aug. 30 report for the state, first reported by the Des Moines Register, from the Iowa Department of Public Health. The task force releases state-by-state reports each week to governors’ offices, and has so far declined to make them publicly available.

The report says that Iowa is in the task force-defined “red zone” and warns that the state has the highest rate of cases in the US, which increased by 77.4% from the previous week.

The report offers recommendations to Iowa, including strongly encouraging a mask mandate. Iowa does not currently mandate masks.

“Mask mandates across the state must be in place to decrease transmission,” the report says.

It also says bars “must be closed” and indoor dining “must be restricted to 50% of normal capacity in yellow zone and 25% of normal capacity in red zone counties and metro areas."

In the report, the task force points to universities as a major factor contributing to the virus’ spread.

“University towns need a comprehensive plan that scales immediately for testing all returning students with routine surveillance testing to immediately identify new cases and outbreaks and isolate and quarantine,” the report says.

The three counties with the highest numbers of cases also have large student populations: Story County, home to Iowa State, and Johnson County, home to University of Iowa, as well as Polk County, which contains Iowa's largest metro area, Des Moines

The report comes less than two weeks before Iowa State University will welcome crowds to its stadium for its season opener football game.

Though social distancing will be observed, a letter from the school’s athletic director estimated “there will be approximately 25,000 fans at the first game." The task force report suggests red zone counties should limit gatherings to 10 or fewer people.

 The test positivity rate for Iowa State students in the second week of testing is 28.8%.

 At the University of Iowa, there have been 935 self-reported cases in students and employees since the semester began August 18.  

There are also concerns, per the task force’s report, about spread in nursing homes, calling the number of nursing homes with more than one resident testing positive “concerning.”

CNN has reached out to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office for comment as to whether she plans to heed these recommendations. Reynolds, a top ally of PresidentTrump, spoke at the Republican National Convention last week, and while she touted the administration’s response to the derecho storm earlier this month, she did not mention the pandemic.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a limited reopening of visitations at nursing homes in his state. The announcement was made during a roundtable event in Jacksonville.

DeSantis said all visitations will be by appointment only, with residents designating up to 5 visitors each. Only 2 visitors will be allowed at one time. No minors will be allowed.

All visitors will have to wear personal protective equipment and pass a screening test, per DeSantis. And no facility can allow visitors unless 14 days have passed without the onset of a new positive Covid-19 case, in either a resident or a staff member.

Visitations at nursing homes and long-term care facilities were shut down in March by DeSantis.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of an online “absentee ballot portal” where voters can directly request an absentee ballot for the November election.

New York is allowing any voter concerned about Covid-19 risk exposure to request an absentee ballot, per executive order, the governor said. 

The move follows a swath of election reforms signed into law last month aimed at easing the mail in voting process

All registered NY voters can request a ballot here

Admiral Brett Giroir, who’s leading US Covid-19 testing efforts, said Tuesday that while some nursing homes and states have raised concerns about point of care tests not being specifically authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration to test asymptomatic individuals, they should go ahead and use them to test for Covid-19 in congregate settings. 

Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said he has heard from nursing care facilities that have been concerned that if they did not perform the more sensitive PCR tests, it be an issue with government regulating authorities. 

“We have executed several actions to assure that there is extreme clarity and no room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation.”

Giroir said the US Food and Drug Administration has tried to bring some clarity to the issue by putting out a frequently asked questions lists, on Aug. 24, that emphasized that if the more sensitive tests are not feasible to use, health care providers can use these less accurate tests in settings where people live together like nursing homes, even if the tests are not specifically labeled for this purpose. 

Giroir said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will not cite facilities for doing this.

Giroir also issued guidance Monday to extend coverage to licensed health care practitioners who prescribe or administer these tests in facilities like nursing homes, long-term care facilities and other group settings like schools and workplaces.

The guidance, he said, pre-empts state and local laws that may prohibit licensed health care practitioners from administering FDA-authorized Covid-19 tests to symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals in these settings. 

“So, I don’t think it could be clearer on and everything has been now wrapped up with a bow on it,” Giroir said. “We’re not going to risk seniors because of paperwork issues or misunderstanding.”

Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Tuesday he doesn’t want to answer any more questions about when every American can quickly and cheaply get a Covid-19 test.

The assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, who is leading Covid-19 testing efforts, said that the country now has a “huge diversity” of tests, including a $5 point of care test that provides results within 15 minutes. 

“There is no stone unturned, there is no technology that we’re not looking at, or investing in if it’s promising,” Giroir said. “We can return to society without having everyone have a test every single day. We can do that. We’re showing we can do that.

“There may be a time where everybody can wake up in the morning, pass through a tricorder and tell whether they’re infected or not, we are not there yet,” Giroir said, referring to a fictional handheld device from the “Star Trek” universe that can scan and record data by waving the instrument over someone.

Giroir said the administration has been “trawling the world” for technology that will advance testing.

“So, I don’t want to answer any more ‘when is that day going to happen,’ because I can’t tell you,” Giroir said. “It may never happen.

“But until it does, if it ever does, we have a plan, the plan’s working, and we're embellishing that plan every single day.”

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James Madison University is reporting 138 new Covid-19 positive cases among its students and employees since Monday, according the JMU Covid-19 Dashboard. 

The University, located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is reporting a 21.14% seven day moving average of daily positivity rates among students and employees and a 28.6% seven day moving average of positivity rates among students who were tested at the University Health Center.

A little more than half — 79 out of 143 — of the universities isolation beds remain available. 

Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force and assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said Tuesday that if Americans do what they are supposed to during the Labor Day weekend, the US should be in “really good shape going into the fall.”

Giroir said the US has conducted more than 85 million tests for Covid-19, and there has been a 5.35% positivity rate in the past seven days.

For the past seven days, turnaround time for the tests has decreased, Giroir said; 91.9% of results from major referral labs (which do about half the tests in the US) were completed in three days. The mean turnaround time in August for large referral labs was 2.27 days.

Deaths are down 10% from their recent peak seven-day average, he said.

“Why are we seeing the success? Because the national strategy is working,” Giroir, who is leading for Covid-19 diagnostic testing efforts. “We cannot let up. Seven states still have greater than 10% positivity.”

Spain received 2.5 million international tourists in July, 75% less than in the same month of 2019, according to the country's National Institute of Statistics.  

Spending was also down 17.8% per tourist to €994 (or about$1,188). 

The Secretary of State for Tourism, Fernando Valdés, explained that this "data reflects how COVID-19 is negatively affecting the tourism sector due to restrictions on international mobility and the lack of confidence in international travel, an impact that is being felt worldwide". 

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said there was a "sluggish improvement" in passenger demand in Europe in July compared to June, but still toppled 87.1% compared to last year.

IATA called on governments to work together to re-establish global connectivity and re-open borders while continuing "with relief measures to sustain airlines during the COVID-19 crisis."

"This uncertainty destroys demand," said IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac in a statement on Tuesday. "Ten percent of the global economy is sustained by travel and tourism; governments need to do better to re-start it."

Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer announced 195 new Covid-19 cases and three more virus-related deaths during a news briefing Tuesday, bringing the city’s total to 12,612 confirmed cases and at least 282 deaths. 

There are currently 111 residents hospitalized, of whom 52 are in the ICU, said Fischer. 

The city’s positivity rate currently stands at 9.42%, he said. 

Cases are starting to trend downward but are still “way too high,” she continued, adding that the positivity rate is still increasing. 

In terms of testing, Louisville’s capacity is “quite robust,” said Bill Altman, Chief Strategy Officer for Kindred Health and former Chair of the Board of Health, who is leading the city’s work on testing as a consultant. 

Altman also noted that testing turnaround times are back to 48 hours or less after the city started to rely more on local and regional labs.